Sorin Steelfang
Sorin Steelfang is the first Steelfang vampire and the father of ex-Archmage Raydin Steelfang, the False Goddess Sylarys Steelfang, the Wishmaster Gideon Steelfang and Sargon Steelfang. Alyssa Steelfang the first was his wife. He is a powerful, nearly unknown battlemage who took part in only the earliest part of The New Kingdoms. In the Cosmic Legacy, Sorin is likewise the half divine son of Aurilion Steelfang, a talented mage who discovered that the world was a dream on its own and the goddess Meridia. His adventures to rewrite fate led him to ultimately become the first Steelfang, and create the bloodline that was later passed down via his family. Biography Early Life (Both TNK and Cosmic Legacy) Sorin was born as the only son of the battlemage Aurilion Steelfang, a half Nord-half Altmer magus who was one of the most powerful mages of his era, a mage who managed to erase himself from history and the timestream when he was bored of his eternal existence. His mother was an unknown Breton Sorceress, summoned from the daedric planes by his father, who was an accomplished conjuror. She was a mortal incarnation of the goddess Meridia. Through his powerful bloodline, which ran to mages such as Shalidor and Vanus Galerion as well as Meridia herself, Sorin inherited an extreme aptitude to learn anything. He was also born with perfect health and a seemingly lengthened, if not infinite lifespan. The daedra, especially Molag Bal also took interest in him since a young age. Sorin learned many powerful magical skills in his time, having a total control over electricity. He used electricity for flight, attack, defense and utility. His electrical capabilities were strong beyond his contemporaries, allowing him to conduct lighting through clouds to smite entire battlefields. He also possessed a power over life on a large scale, enabling him to kill whole armies by draining their life, or heal whole armies with minimal expenditure of his magicka. Lastly, Sorin's father taught him about the principles of the world and how to alter it, which meant Sorin knew he was a "dreamer". He also knew how to escape and control the "dream", but like his father, had rejected that path. Sorin later learnt sword combat from an Akaviri master when he journeyed to Akavir. He became proficient with all sorts of sharp weapons over time, but the sword remained as his main focus. It was at this time he learnt to speak and write the Akaviri languages as well, which was a skill passed down to his descendants through education. Sorin became a mercenary when aged 16, before his journey to Akavir, but it wasn't until he was 21 that he actually made a name for himself, after mastering both magic and sword. Becoming a Vampire Sorin was sent to exterminate a nigh invincible vampire lord, the demigod child of Molag Bal himself, who terrorized the towns around Cyrodiil. He fought the monster, which he eventually succeeded in killing, breaking his daedric sword and destroying all his daedric armor. As he laid down to die, Sorin was transported into Coldharbor as he had decided to drink the vampire's blood, placing him on the edge of life and death. Molag Bal had a specific interest in the man, with the intent to corrupt the very son of Meridia herself and turn him into something his mother hated. Molag Bal had a small game with the vampire. If Sorin could perform domination on a scale Molag was incapable of, Molag would let him off. Sorin therefore was first pitted against every single daedra in Coldharbor, his skills allowing him to destroy them, building up his power as he overcame trial after trial, using his authority as a Daedric Prince's son to draw out the powers of the daedra and take them as his own. Sorin's response was to challenge Molag to a duel. Molag Bal scoffed and took on a mortal avatar to battle the vampire, since he was confident of winning easily, given his powers. Sorin destroyed the mortal body of the Prince as his sword reflected his powers, and he could actually kill Daedric Princes given he was someone who ranked among them, not beneath them. Molag therefore granted Sorin a new kind of vampirism as a reward. Sorin was unaffected by the sun, silver and flames with the new strain of vampirism he received. He gained the powers of a vampire lord without the need to transform. However, in the end, Molag Bal assumed he won, as he turned Meridia's son into a vampire, defying the protection from his mother and making Sorin an undead, the very thing that Meridia swore to destroy. This was his plan from the start, with everything else being a charade and gamble. What Molag didn't know was that Sorin, thanks to his vitakinesis and Meridia's blood, was not truly undead. He also didn't know that because Sorin was a half-daedra and innately bonded to his own mother, he could never touch Sorin's soul, which already belonged to Meridia and could never be taken from her. Light and darkness in Sorin's blood combined to form a balanced, high quality divine blood. This balance of light and darkness in Sorin's blood would prove instrumental in the transformation of the Demigod into something beyond when he journeyed further beyond the reaches of the world. Later life The New Kingdoms Sorin met and married the Archmage of the College of Winterhold, Alyssa, after saving her life and a lengthy courtship. He turned her into the second Steelfang Vampire. They lived in relative comfort and happiness, Sorin's massive business ventures turning huge profit, so they never worried about income. He was inducted into the Shadow Watch and became its leader, as the others recognized his power. Nelfyion, though, told him that his future would not end well, but that his descendants would be some of the greatest mages ever alive. Sorin performed a few contracts for the various petty nobles when he was summoned to Skyrim. He worked for both Adawulf Sea-Born and Eriksson Silver Blood, sowing discord through murder through both clandestine killings and wiping out whole villages openly. He was the acting Archmage of Winterhold for a very, very limited time, although he instituted major policy changes that allowed his son to succeed him without much fuss, paving the foundation for the College to become a powerful organisation. Sorin eventually was trapped in Coldharbor when he tried to rescue Alyssa from Molag Bal, as she fled to Coldharbor to birth Raydin and Sylarys in a different timeline, so they would be ready to return to a life on Mundus earlier, under the unborn Raydin's instruction, since Raydin apparently knew he was important to the current and not future timeline. He was never heard from again. Raydin possibly predicted his father's bind to Coldharbor and could have even contributed to it by manipulating both his parents. In his time with Alyssa in Coldharbor, Sorin had another son, Gideon, who was eventually bound in many separate dimensions to prevent him from invading Mundus. Also, Sargon was born a few years after Gideon. The births of the two children are not well known, though. Sorin reappeared to pass his weapons to his grandson Siris. He obviously was not bound to Coldharbor at that point in time. Whether this was because Sylarys unbound all the souls from every daedric prince or because of his own power, is not known, although the latter seems likely, since he was capable of defeating Molag Bal in one on one combat, if he actually tried. Sorin probably continues to roam Oblivion, not bound to any one plane. He hates binding to Mundus and rarely, if ever, returns from Oblivion to Mundus. It's later shown Sorin in fact lives beyond the Aurbis in the Steelfang plane Euphoria, flying in only when he feels like it. Cosmic Legacy Sorin first enlisted with the Legion before the Great War, where he was assigned as a battlemage in the Shadow Legion to combat magical threats. As one of his routine missions, he was sent to exterminate a daedric cult, where he first met his wife to be Alyssa, at that time a young girl of about 10 whom he rescued from the cult. Sorin also retrieved the sword Umbra from the same cult at that period. Sorin later fought in the Great War as a Battlemage, and rose up the ranks quickly given his good knowledge of the battlefield and his magical powers. He was promoted quickly until he reached the rank of Legate. It was known that the legion was reluctant to promote him further as Sorin lacked compassion and did not have the charisma necessary to command a large force. The Empire eventually signed the White-Gold Concordat, and Sorin became dissatisfied at the Emperor. Eventually Sorin left the Legion after spending many years in Cyrodiil and journeyed north to Skyrim, where he had sent Alyssa before the Great War broke out to ensure her safety. He had many adventures and misadventures, finding Alyssa again, except she was grown up by now. The two of them traveled together across Skyrim for a while, performing many acts that would change the fate of the land even as the Dragon Crisis was underway. In Sorin's world, because of his presence and his inborn ability to defy fate, Ulfric Stormcloak was captured ahead of schedule and hence Alduin arrived too late to prevent the execution of the Dragonborn, who died on the block. Therefore, the Prophecy of the Dragonborn became impossible to complete through conventional means. Sorin decided to defy prophecy on his own, and he would later perform many actions to resolve the Dragon Crisis in Skyrim, even though there was no "hero of prophecy", for his ability to defy fate allowed him to kill Alduin. To deal with various threats that had appeared, Sorin decided he needed more power than he already possessed. He had learnt that even the various Divines and Daedra were bound by the laws of the world and the prophecies of the land. While "lucid dreaming" would have given him the strength to stand on par with the highest concepts within the world, Sorin wanted something beyond that. Even though he had mastered Destruction, Restoration and Alteration Magic, which gave him the power to rule over the world, Sorin had decided ruling the mortal land through strength was not enough, because he could not escape the Path of Fate, only control it. Alyssa and Sorin thought about the principles of the world together, so they could find a method to conquer it. They realized that of all things in the world they lived in, everything had an origin and if they traced back the path to the original creation, there were forces beyond even the reach of the gods since even the gods had origins. Yet, Sorin and Alyssa also knew they could not directly reach these forces, even if they reached the level of the gods, since they were products of creation. Alyssa and Sorin did realize, though, that Sorin's alignment with both life and death, as well as light and dark, meant his body possessed what would be termed as a "perfect balance". Also, as a Demigod that was aligned to the stars and sun instead of the Dvines or Daedra, which placed him closer to the Magna Ge that exited his world, Sorin could venture the realms of Aetherius and Oblivion freely. Alyssa suggested that Sorin chase the source of creation beyond Aetherius, using all the powers he had. Sorin eventually managed to reach the World's Horizon, crossing it into the Void Beyond the World. From there, he observed that there were many possibilities and paths that the world could have took, including him or not including him. Rejecting his existence as a child of parents and a creation of the world, Sorin expelled all his Divinity, Magicka and Knowledge of the world, separating his body, mind and soul, in order to discard what was a byproduct of creation. Utilizing nothing but willpower alone, via his presence of mind, Sorin erased all his parallel selves from the world and absorbed them as his aspects, becoming a singular entity across multiple possibilities. With his body serving as a container and his soul as a catalyst, Sorin successfully connected to and absorbed the Origin of Creation with his mind, transforming into an entity beyond the reach of even the gods. His expelled Divinity, Magicka and Knowledge flowed back into his body when he reconnected to it with his mind and absorbed his soul, since he now held All Creation as his power. Confirming his existence as a being above all else, Sorin gained Omniscience and the ability to rewrite reality. Sorin's Divine Vampire blood evolved into the Steelfang Blood, and when he returned to the world, he granted said blood to Alyssa and with her rewrote fate by killing the Alduin of his world permanently, ending the Cycle of the Kalpas. Together, they erased their world and origin by erasing the past, disconnecting themselves entirely from existence. Thus, they became entities unbound from the laws of the world by erasing the laws that held them down and gaining the full power of All Creation through their Sphere of Domination. After the creation of the Three Realms of Euphoria, where Sorin and Alyssa took residence in the Higher Euphoria, they transformed the place into a paradise. Alyssa would later give birth to Sorin's only child, the transcendent one Raydin Steelfang. The two of them resided there permanently after that. Appearance and Personality The New Kingdoms Sorin has shown himself to be a very cold and calculating individual, who would stop at nothing to secure his goals. He has shown a certain annoyance when anything places a hitch in his plans, getting annoyed even when it was revealed his wife bore his child, seeing it as only a distraction. As for any other notable traits, it is how cold Sorin is to even his own family. He doesn't show anyone any form of affection or warmth, and even Alyssa knows how cold he is, as she herself can only provoke his care and concern half the time. Even for his own children, Sorin seems to have abandoned them emotionally, treating them as strangers. The only individual Sorin ever seemed to care for was his grandson Siris, whom he gave many extremely powerful artifacts. Cosmic Legacy Unlike his self in The New Kingdoms, Sorin is instead a much more casual individual in the Cosmic Legacy. He openly cracks sarcastic jokes at the expense of others instead of being serious all the time. It is hard to guess his actual intentions at times. It is known that Sorin has no patience in explaining concepts to those who cannot grasp it the first time around. He generally looks down on those who cannot cast magic. Sorin does not value human lives, as he does not consider himself human as he is the child of a Goddess and a mage who had the chance to become a godlike entity. However, he does openly show care and concern for his friends, unlike his equivalent in The New Kingdoms. He does feel qualms about disposing of people close to him, although he has no compassion for anyone else. It can be said that should a friend of Sorin's become an enemy of the world, Sorin would gladly kill the large proportion of the world against his friend. Other than that, Sorin has high amounts of persistence in what he does, and chases his dreams with his best efforts. He is cynical towards the actions of most humans as it is all too easy for him to spot self destructive behavior in others. Sorin considers those who rely on forces beyond as weak, and thinks people should get what they want personally. Sorin shows a lot more of a relatively perverse and cheeky side, although after he gained complete understanding of the world, this has vanished. Appearence Sorin has the blue eyes with slit pupils, silvery white hair and fair, smooth skin. He has been described in many ways, but key points include the softness of his overall features, which possessed a certain graceful beauty to them. He possesses a youthful countenance on his oval face that does not exceed 20 years of age, a consequence of his immortality. Sorin was not known to have kept facial hair of any sort. Sorin stands at a height of 6'0" and has a mesomorphic build. He is not innately very bulky, though. Powers and Abilities The New Kingdoms Sorin had complete control over electricity and electromagnetism, thus he possessed the power to control magnetic fields and photokinesis by extension. He is capable of transmuting any magic into electricity and bending the electricity, either back to the caster, or away from him. His mastery over other elemental forms is unknown, but he is never seen using any of his powers other than vampiric abilities and electrokinesis. With his electrokinetic powers, he can fly via magnetic repulsion, although he prefers to use bat form for that. Sorin probably was able to control all four fundamental forces, though. Like his son Raydin, Sorin possessed daedric tattoos on his left arm that he could use to create gravity wells and suck people into Oblivion. He used the power as a portal to Coldharbor. Sorin was able to cast soul veils, like his daughter. Sorin's left palm is indestructible because of this. Sorin's Steelfang Vampirism gives him superhuman strength, speed and stamina. He possessed all the powers of a vampire lord, except he could use them untransformed and in a far more powerful manner, as well as the unique ability to shift, devour and manipulate life forces, as all Steelfang vampires can. Sorin also rapidly recovered from any injury, magical or physical. The only known way to kill him was total body destruction, but he could rebirth from Aetherius due to the Shadow Watch procedure done on him, making him practically unkillable, except by erasing him from existence, a feat that can only be accomplished by few, if not no one. Possible other powers that Sorin could have possessed from his Steelfang bloodline are the fear vision of the Steelfang family, the ability to access Euphoria and the ability to summon Tranquil Guardians and Daedric Succubi. He was capable of accessing Euphoria, as seen when he attended his son's wedding. Sorin never exhibited his Steelfang wings for flight. Sorin also was a talented swordsman who could defeat entire armies of enemies with his sword alone. He preferred to use his scythe, though, since it was less lethal than his sword. He is also capable of fighting with his fists. His willpower is so great that mind mages destroy their own minds if they try to control him (although this could be Mental Magic). He was also immune to illusion because of that, reflecting and diffracting illusion spells cast on him. It is possible that Sorin Steelfang is clairvoyant, as he knew of Raydin's ascension to Archmage and sought to make it easier. He also knew that Alyssa was trapped in Coldharbor before Molag Bal taunted him. The extent of his future scrying is not well known. Cosmic Legacy Sorin possesses vast control over the entire electromagnetic force. He is able to produce and control electricity, magnetic forces and light without much effort. This was his basic foundation to learn more magic and served as his main offensive magic before he gained the powers of All Creation. Other than that, Sorin's magical prowess before his ascension was extremely high, as he had mastery of all known Alteration Magic, learnt from his father, and also the ability to control life forces, learnt from his mother. Sorin himself also figured out how to control the flow and movement of magicka itself, which made learning any magic extremely easy for him when coupled with his intelligence. Sorin also had the ability to store an unlimited number of items in an alternate space that belonged to him, summoning them to his hand when necessary. As the son of a goddess, Sorin's physique and constitution cannot be said to be human. His healing rate from wounds was much higher than any human, even those at peak physical condition. He also had much better reflexes, strength, speed and stamina than any mortal, even without training. This was coupled with the superhuman swordplay Sorin learnt from his Akaviri teacher, making him a dangerous foe even if magic was not counted. Sorin possessed white, feathered wings which he could use for flight as well as the powers of a Vampire Lord without the need to transform even before he attained the power of All Creation. This further pushed his superhuman physical stats even higher. His bare skin also resisted most weapons, even those made by the Divines or Daedra, although this supernatural protection was not absolute until it evolved into full fledged Divine Skin. Sorin is an accomplished archer because of involvement in multiple episodes of covert operations against the Aldmeri Dominion. As he had comparatively poor skill in illusion, Sorin was unable to use offensive magic quietly and so relied on a bow for long ranged stealth kills, making him an expert in using one. He is also able to sneak well because of his vampirism and the amount of covert missions he has performed. However, Sorin has no affinity for thief like activities as he is neither good a picking pockets or locks, since he opened locked doors using magic and never stole from the living. After he gained the powers of All Creation, Sorin was able to rewrite reality at will. He also gained omniscient sight of all present events and thus the ability to predict the future with high certainity. Sorin also possesses all the powers of the Steelfang Family, since his the progenitor of said family. Sorin's Sphere of Domination as a Steelfang is "The Wayfinder". This grants him clairvoyance and the ability to "open pathways" and "close pathways", in essence giving him the power over the concept of "Locking" and "Unlocking". This allows Sorin space bending powers and the ability to seal other's abilities. Sorin is capable of "Destroying the Future Path" as well, allowing him to erase entities and objects via will alone, by denying the future of his target. Equipment The New Kingdoms Sorin possessed at one time, the legendary sword "Reaper of Souls", which was already a devastating weapon in his hands. He eventually passed the sword to his grandson Siris Steelfang, after he began to unlock the true power of the sword. As shown, Sorin has more than one sword, He actually also wields the longsword "Voltiaxic Warp". a weapon that can call lightning down from the sky, through generation of electrified storms above the battlefield. This sword could also fire arcs of chain lightning everywhere, compress lightning into plasma crescents for ranged attacks, or generate an electrical tornado around Sorin that flung everything away. Sorin used to use a silver edged scythe, despite his vampirism, since he was not vulnerable to silver, unlike a normal vampire. He gave Siris a special scythe, but that was not actually his weapon of choice. Sorin's scythe, besides having a massive damage boost against supernatural foes, also silenced his opponents, preventing magicka use, and weakened them, slowing them down and causing them to bleed. If an opponent weakened enough, Sorin's scythe instantly tore out their soul, conveying it to Oblivion. Sorin wears a set of hooded armor, for which he could remove the hood on demand. His armor was made of black, ebony like material, which blue runes on them. Sorin's armor was capable of self repair and it was also capable of blocking most forms of damage to him. Cosmic Legacy Sorin's primary sword is a manifestation of his power, known only as the "Sun Child's Sword". It is an ornate blade with a beautiful filigree hilt of gold patterns on a black background. The blade of the sword itself was mostly black, with a golden edge. This blade had power over light, electricity and magnetism, like Sorin himself. After Sorin's connection to All Creation, the "Sun Child's Sword" gained the ability to cut space-time, as well as extinguish worlds. The black parts of the blade also became a clear silver. As a high grade divine weapon, it is one of the few things capable of cutting through the highest tier of the conceptual ability "Divine Skin". Sorin eventually named his blade "Pathfinder's Key". Sorin collected many daedric artifacts when he journeyed as a mortal adventurer, and he retains these weapons in his dimensional armory. He is capable of using the artifacts in ways that a mortal cannot, as if the Daedric Princes themselves were wielding their weapons. As Sorin's versions are "the originals", they are stronger than their equivalent artefacts from other dimensions. As he is Meridia's son, Sorin gained the ability to call perfect copies of Dawnbreaker to his hand after he found the sword the first time. He can push Dawnbreaker far beyond mortal limits, using the sword to fire waves of gold flame or creating a shining inferno of said gold flame. Sorin can freely reshape the sword into a two handed weapon, spear or dagger on demand. Also, Sorin's simple redefinition of undead as anything that is not dead allows Dawnbreaker to harm all creatures equally in his hands. Sorin can also summon a large number of Dawnbreaker copies and remotely control them. Sorin originally wore an ebony armor to protect himself, but when he became the first Steelfang, he gained the ability to manifest the unique silver and golden armor that they all possess. Sorin's Steelfang Armor, like all others, is covered with glowing blue runic patterns as well. He can also manifest a simple white cloth coat/shirt/pants combination. Sorin's Steelfang Armor combined with the Divine Skin of the Steelfang Family renders him invincible to any attack except those made by the highest caliber divine sword or the strongest powers. Trivia * Sorin is named after the Planeswalker Sorin Markov from the card game Magic the Gathering. His life manipulating abilities are also derived partially from the card, except made much more powerful. * Sorin's use of a scythe is because he is based upon the grim reaper. His hooded armor plated robes further exemplifies this, alongside a mentioned skull mask. * Sorin's true wings are actually three pairs of pure white angel wings, representative of his heritage. His custom Steelfang wings manifest as a pair of dragon like wings in the latest concept art * Sorin and his wife Alyssa seem slightly disapproving about Raydin marrying Virlomi in TNK. There were even more disapproving about Raydin marrying Astrid, though. * Sorin Steelfang was actually named for Datadragon Odahviing's first RP character ever, who featured in an earlier RP. * Sorin Steelfang actually possesses the sword Trueflame in Cosmic Legacy. One of the tasks he did in Akavir was to personally slay the Nerevarine of his world as a challenge set by the Tsaesci Master who imparted him his sword skills. This allowed Sorin to gain possession of both Trueflame and Hopesfire. Alternate art Sorin Steelfang Bloodline Patriach.jpg|Somewhat more updated art, most updated TNK version Sorin Steelfang Hooded.jpg|Sorin wearing his hood, but not his mask. Sorin Steelfang.jpg|Sorin without his hood, older art. Category:Males Category:Characters Category:College of Winterhold Category:Half-Breeds Category:Gods Category:Battlemages Category:Archmage Category:Steelfang Vampires Category:Cosmic Legacy Category:The New Kingdoms Category:Immortal